RE: "Appears" vs. "will appear"

[Gause_Brian -at- emc -dot- com]

Actually, I disagree. I think your suggestion "Click ABC. The XYZ dialog
box opens." is too stilted. And "opens" is just as magical as
"appears"...

I would argue that the purpose of clicking ABC is NOT to perform some
task in the dialog box, but to implement new options from that dialog
box to affect the application in some OTHER way.

See, you can't write procedures with purpose in mind, because which
layer of purpose do you mean? If the effect of clicking ABC is to
display the XYZ dialog box, then your greater "purpose" or "goal"
doesn't matter as long as it opens. I don't document intentions, but
tool behavior. To that end, I focus on one task per step, using clear
cause-and-effect, intentional language. If clicking on the button
displays the dialog, I write the task and the intended result. Unless it
relates directly to parameters or options, the greater "purpose" is
irrelevant in procedural steps, and better suited to the intro (or, in
fact, as the title of the procedure).

If you were documenting purposes, you could end up with something absurd
like this:

Click ABC so that you can enter your name and address on the XYZ dialog
box so that we can send you our free trial offer of shampoo in the mail
so that you can try it on your hair and feel better about yourself so
that you can get a job and a house and girlfriend...so that you can move
out of your parents' pad.


.Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+gause_brian=emc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+gause_brian=emc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Brierley, Sean
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 10:16 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: "Appears" vs. "will appear"

Ahhh, but usually the purpose of clicking ABC is not to open a dialog
box. The purpose of clicking ABC is to perform some task in the dialog
box.

Cheers,

SEan 

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sean -dot- brierley=ipc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sean -dot- brierley=ipc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Gause_Brian -at- emc -dot- com
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 1:08 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: "Appears" vs. "will appear"

 Easy-peasy...

Click ABC to display the XYZ dialog box, as shown in Figure 42.


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